What do Spock, James Bond, Mr. Rogers and Winnie the Pooh all have in common? Why, in their own ways, they’re all quite nonchalant.

I’ve been inspired by our recent summer heat wave, with all its indolent nonchalance, as well as my fellow editor and redhead Rachel Solomon, to look into this mellow word’s etymology.

“Nonchalant” comes, as you might have surmised, from the French word of the same spelling and meaning, namely, as the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines it, “calm and casual; (deliberately) lacking in enthusiasm or interest; indifferent, unconcerned.” As an adjective, it can describe a person, their behavior or, if they’re creative, their technique or style. As a noun, it’s a sort of state of being, an attitude, if you will.

Think cool cat and “all that jazz:” unperturbed and steady.

As the OED notes, the word comes from the Old French present participle of “nonchaloir,” from “nonchaler,” meaning “to neglect or despise.” The prefix “non-” negates the word’s root, “chaloir” (or “chaler”), meaning “to interest” or “be important” (hence, “not interested” or to treat as not important).

All this comes from the classical Latin “calēre,” which can mean, variously, “to be warm,” “to be roused with zeal or anger” or “to be active.” “Calent” is the surviving, if obsolete, modern adjective. Thus, since “calēre” means “to be hot,” to be “non-calēre,” as it were, means to be cool, chill and calm.

While the word has existed in its French form since the 800s, it was introduced into modern English as an adjective around 1734 by Roger North, in his Examen; or, an Enquiry into the Credit and Veracity of a Pretended Complete History, with the line: “To be non chalant and insipid in such matters.”

North (c. 1751-1734) was a voluminous writer, lawyer and politician notable for his incurable curiosity about subjects ranging from music to mathematics, architecture, political history, etymology and biography, the theory of which he helped advance with his innovative approach to long-form narrative, as seen in his studies of his three brothers’ lives (as well as his own.)

Strictly speaking, however, “nonchalant” had appeared earlier (in this case, as the noun “nonchalance”), in the late 1600s. But such was the word’s, shall we say, nonchalant entry into English, that by 1813, the legendary English poet and Romantic satirist Lord Byron (aka George Gordon Byron, 1788-1824) could refer to the “nonchalent deities of Lucretius” in a letter.

In more recent times, the British novelist and critic Edward Morgan (E.M.) Forster (1879-1970) used the word in his Room with a View, published in 1908, with this line from Chapter 12: “They followed him up the bank, attempting the tense yet nonchalant expression that is suitable for ladies on such occasions.”

Take a deep breath and stay cool, calm and collected. I hope the history of “nonchalant” leaves you nonchalant, but if you have any word ideas, questions or comments, please drop me a note at features@dailyuw.com and, until next time, cheerio!

Reach Opinion Editor Will Mari at features@dailyuw.com.